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Industry Figures Receive FMI Awards

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Food Industry Alliance of New York State President and c.e.o. Jim Rogers and past Kentucky Retail Federation president John Hinkle were honored last week at the Washington Public Policy Conference.

June 17, 2007, 08:00 pm

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Food Industry Alliance of New York State President and c.e.o. Jim Rogers and past Kentucky Retail Federation president John Hinkle were honored last week at the Washington Public Policy Conference.

Rogers received the 2007 Food Marketing Institute Donald H. MacManus Association Executive Award for his significant role in the industry's campaign against excessive credit card interchange fees. In 2006 and 2007 he helped persuade the state assembly to consider six interchange bills, among them measures to require Visa and MasterCard to fully disclose their fees and operating rules, and to prohibit these fees from being charged on the sales tax portion of credit card purchases.

Additionally, Rogers has blocked many attempts to expand the New York bottle law, advocating the need for ecologically friendly solutions such as curbside collection of all recyclable materials. He is also a longtime of allowing supermarkets to carry wine.

Rogers serves as board chair of the Food Industry Association Executives. He previously worked for the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants, National Restaurant Association, and FMI.

FMI honors an association leader yearly with the Donald H. MacManus award, now in its 17th year. The award's namesake was a grocery industry veteran who served for many years as executive director of the Rocky Mountain Food Dealers Association and as FMI's first Western Region director. He was also democratic whip in the Colorado State Senate.

Hinkle was recognized at the conference for coming up with the idea of prohibiting interchange fees on the sales tax portion of credit card purchases. In early 2006 he persuaded the Kentucky state assembly to consider legislation that would institute this ban. Similar laws have subsequently been considered in Florida, Kansas, Nebraska, Nevada, New York and Washington.